The Dark Ages has a big reputation . In fact , it ’s possibly the only period of story literallynamed afterits bad reputation : the title , as we all check in school , is a address to the approximation that , after the Roman Empire fell in the West , everyone drop the next few hundred in the metaphorical dark – that is , stumbling about , unable to see the true shape of things , and occasionallybraining themselves on the odd barber - sawbones .
But how fair is that ? Were the 500 days before the Renaissance really all that bad ?
countenance ’s shed some light on what life was really like in the so - called “ Dark Ages ” – and whether it was really “ dark ” at all .
Why was it called the “Dark Ages”?
Pretty simple-minded answer to this one : it was n’t . Not at the time , at least .
depend , we all get a flush out of the apparently dumb hooey our ascendent did : using tattoos as medicine , for example , orrubbing pulverize bird of night on themselvesas a cure for urarthritis . What we do n’t tend to understand so much is thatthosepeople were evenly amused by – and derisive of – their own forebear .
“ The condition ( rather like ' The Middle Ages ' or ' Medieval ' in Latin ) was strike during the Renaissance , ” explainedLucy Marten , Visiting Scholar in History at Franklin & Marshall College .
“ As the think ‘ re - parturition ’ ( for that is what the full term entail ) of classical civilization , Renaissance scholars – especially Petrarch – saw the bit in the midsection as a broken point , ” she told IFLScience .
Indeed , it ’s Petrarch , an Italian poet from the fourteenth century , who usually gets the rap for the period ’s dismissive byname . But that ’s unjust , actually : “ In point of fact , Petrarch was blab out about literature , ” Marten mention , “ but all these terms have become used to mark a supposed downturn in scientific , cultural and intellectual growth . ”
And if the period looked shady to Renaissance scholars , it was positivelyBlack 3.0to the next bunch on the prospect : the Enlightenment philosophers . As the name inculpate , these thinkers of the 17th and 18th centuries saw themselves as uniquely noetic and advanced – and , crucially , more secular than ever before . The term “ Dark Ages ” started to take on more baggage : “ Disdain about the mediaeval past times was especially forthright amongst the vital and rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment , ” writes Robert Bartlett in his 2001 bookMedieval Panorama . “ For them the Middle Ages epitomized the barbaric , priest - ride man they were attempting to metamorphose . ”
This , pair with the relative deficiency of historical sources from the time , deepen the period ’s report as being backwards , superstitious , and dead . But is that really justified ?
How “dark” were the “Dark Ages”, anyway?
To say that the former medieval period – which is what mod historians unremarkably favor to call the period – was a clock time of cultural stagnation is , at good , entirely too Euro - centric .
After all , the period often referred to as the “ Dark Ages ” spans about the 5th to 10th centuries – overlapping theIslamic lucky Age , for instance , by a full 300 year . This was “ a truly remarkable geological period in human story , ” write Ahmed Renima , Habib Tiliouine , and Richard J. Estes in the bookThe State of Social Progress of Islamic Societies ; “ on[e ] that encompass the remarkable accomplishments made by Moslem scholars , humanists , and scientist in all areas of the arts and humanities , the physical and social sciences , medicine , uranology , mathematics , finance , and Muslim and European pecuniary systems over a catamenia of many century . ”
Meanwhile , China was experiencing its own renaissance under theTang Dynasty ; the Maya civilization over in Mesoamerica was reaching a zenith , withadvancementsin writing , architecture , agribusiness , government , organized religion , and science ; even the Byzantine Empire , just sou'-east of Medieval Europe , go through a point we now advert to as its “ gilded age ” at this clip .
But even contract our sight to Europe alone , the Dark Ages but were n’t that dark , Marten told IFLScience . “ There was deal happening , ” she said , “ even though much of the intellectual focus of the church - trained literate elite was on theology and rhetoric . ”
There were at least two periods of significant cultural evolution in Western Europe throughout the period – they ’re even sometimes know as the “ Medieval renaissances ” . Under the reign of Charlemagne , for representative , sweeping reforms visit the poor and middle classes educated for the first time , with “ young men studying for the priesthood were also gestate to know , ornateness , dialectical , math , medicine , and uranology , ” writes Michael Edward Stewart , an Honorary Research Fellow and Associate Lecturer in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland , in a2001 paperon the period .
More than 50,000 account book were produced in the 9th century alone – in fact , it was during this period that the handwriting fashion we read gentle today , humanist miniscule , originated ; it was in short , Marten explained , “ a efflorescence of intellectual thought … [ it ] help to preserve many classical texts as well as generate new way of cerebration . ”
The “dark” world
Far from being a cultural backwater , then , early chivalric Europe was brandish . external deal and relations were strong : “ A entombment such as Sutton Hoo … contains silverware from Byzantium and stunning gold jewellery containing garnet and lapis lazuli from India , ” Marten tell IFLScience .
Meanwhile , the ship technology of the Vikings made it from Scandinavia as far west as North America , South to the Azores , and East to at least Baghdad – potentially even further , Marten take down , with finds such as the “ Helgö Buddha ” suggest at trade links stretching as far as India . “ I am enamor by the cultural interaction , ” Marten said . “ The Vikings play over 50 different cultures in their travels . ”
And in many ways , the so - squall “ Dark Ages ” were strikingly modern . We ’ve seenpotentially non - binarygraves from this era ; concepts like gender and racewere looserthan in the following centuries ; there are even accounts of pouf and trans people survive quite happily during this period ( heck , just read the news report ofThor ’s Weddingin the Poetic Edda if you ’re appear for some feminist queer euphoria . )
“ We have a great deal of stories that recount often the lives of figures who were assign female person at nativity and basically live out their entire life sentence as military personnel in all - virile monastic communities , ” noted University of California , Irvine , historian Roland Betancourt in the University of Chicago’sBig Brains podcast .
“ There ’s a lot of interesting grounds in the medieval domain that demonstrates just how common same grammatical gender closeness were and these various forms of gay relation were , ” he explained . “ John Boswell , who was a historiographer at Yale , very famously made the argument that Byzantium had a modern equivalent to same sex activity unions because there was this right known as the brother - pee right wing , where two men could be joined a ghostlike trades union , they could share the same seam , dwell together . ”
womanhood , too , were n’t needs as risky off as you ’re thinking . Theycould be educatedjust as much as the men in their lives – which , in fairness , was n’t a passel in the Middle Ages , but still – and were known to exercise in trades , farming , or arts .
“ There were many more opportunities [ for women ] than for a good few centuries following this period ! ” Marten secernate IFLScience . “ ideate being Gunfrid the Far - Travelled ( c. 980 – 1019 CE ) for example . She was Icelandic , gave birth to her son Snorri in North America , and later went on a pilgrimage to Rome . ”
The Dark Ages – a deserved title?
So , what would life have been like for you or me in the Dark Ages ? Well , frankly , that ’s a severe doubtfulness to answer : “ just as today , that depart so much according to social class and geography , ” Marten tell apart IFLScience . Plus , she maneuver out , even by the narrowest of definition , we ’re verbalise about a 500 - year span of story – the equivalent of aggroup today in the same era as the Pilgrim Fathers .
Of of course , nobody ’s say the Dark Ages were some kind of Zion – in fact , they wrap up what is believably the worst clip in human story to be alive , viz , 536 CE and the decades immediately afterwards ( earnestly ) . You ’d in all likelihood have to put up with a infestation or two – when do n’t you ? – and your chances were slim to bupkis on being capable to take and pen to any appreciable arcdegree .
But as far as living in some period of uniquely moribund arts , sciences , and culture rifle – well , it plow out this supposedly “ benighted ” geezerhood was a batch brighter than we ’ve been teach .
